ELACATE CANADA. 97 



terminates with the last dorsal spine, and has a fold of skin that runs for some 

 distance above its superior margin. The ventral arises very near the root of the 

 pectoral, and is about half as long ; it is near its fellow, and has its internal margin 

 united for some distance to the belly. The anal fin is long, and very thick ; it 

 begins about the anterior third of the soft dorsal, and reaches so far back as to 

 terminate at the same point with it behind, where it is a little prolonged and 

 pointed ; it has twenty-three rays ; and the membrane that unites them is covered 

 Avith minute scales, clustered in different places. The caudal is large and strong, 

 nearly one fourth the whole length of the body, and deeply crescentic ; the upper 

 horn is the longer, and both are covered with small scales. 



The scales are of an oblong shape, rounded before and behind, and so minute as 

 to give a granulated appearance to the skin when it is dried. The lateral line 

 runs at first very near the back, and has slight undulations in its course as far as 

 the eighth dorsal spine, when it curves down to the median plane, and thus con- 

 tinues ; its scales ^re destitute of a tube. 



Colour. When first taken out of the water, the head above and the back are 

 dark olive-broAvn ; but they assume in a short time a bluish-black colour ; the 

 cheeks below the eye, and the lower jaw, are silvery, faintly tinted with red ; a 

 broad, olive-brown, horizontal band or stripe begins at the opercle, and runs over 

 the pectoral fin, to the tail ; both above and below this band is another of lighter 

 colour ; the one above is narrow and indistinct ; the one beloAV is broader and 

 paler ; a second horizontal olive bar, but of lighter tint, and shorter than the first, 

 begins behind the origin of the pectoral ; the abdomen is entirely white ; the dor- 

 sal, anal, and caudal fins are olive-brown above, and almost black at their base ; 

 the ventral is white, clouded in places with pale olive, and has its anterior border 

 tinted with red. 



Dimensions. The head is one fifth the entire length ; the greatest elevation is 

 rather more than half a head. This fish sometimes attains a great size ; I have 

 seen a specimen more than four feet long. 



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